Interstate 195 (New Jersey) - History

History

What would become I-195 was first proposed in the late 1950s as a toll road called the Trenton-Asbury Park Expressway that was to be operated by the New Jersey Highway Authority, the owner of the Garden State Parkway at the time. In 1965, this road would be incorporated into a planned Central Jersey Expressway System. The western portion would become a part of the Route 37 freeway that was to run from Trenton to Seaside Heights while the eastern portion would become a part of the Route 38 freeway that was to run from Camden to Belmar. The two freeways were to meet near Fort Dix. By 1967, plans for the Route 38 freeway were canceled, leaving Route 37 as the only planned east-west freeway through central New Jersey. The routing of this freeway, which was to be called the Central Jersey Expressway, was changed to run from the Trenton area east to Wall Township In addition, officials pushed for Interstate Highway funding for the freeway, with funds to be diverted from the canceled I-278 in Union County. The proposed freeway would cost $60 million.

By 1970, construction took place on the route between CR 539 near Allentown and CR 527 in Jackson Township. The portion of I-195 between the New Jersey Turnpike and CR 527 was opened by 1973 and construction on the section between White Horse and the New Jersey Turnpike began. In 1979, I-195 was completed east to Squankum. By 1983, the length of I-195 was completed.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority had proposed to build the Driscoll Expressway which was to start from exit 80 of the parkway in Toms River and end 3 miles north of exit 8A of the Turnpike in South Brunswick. This proposal was also part of the "Central Jersey Expressway System," but it was proposed before I-195 was ever created. After I-195 was extended into Jackson Township in the late 1970s, an interchange was planned to be built to connect the two roads. However, the Driscoll Expressway was shelved in the 1980s.

When it was planned, I-195 did not intersect I-95 at all; it instead connected to I-295 at its west end. When I-95 was re-routed to the New Jersey Turnpike after the cancellation of the Somerset Freeway, I-195 was connected to I-95. Since I-95 abruptly ends at I-295 and US 1 in Lawrence Township, motorists must take I-295 southbound to I-195 east in order to access I-95/New Jersey Turnpike.

On April 6, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed H.R. 4263 naming I-195 in New Jersey the James J. Howard Interstate Highway, in honor of the late James J. Howard, a U.S. Representative from New Jersey who advocated improving the highways of the United States . In the late 1990s, the New Jersey Department of Transportation considered the possibility of widening I-195 to six lanes between the New Jersey Turnpike and CR 537 in order to accommodate traffic going to Six Flags Great Adventure. The interchange with CR 537 was improved in 1997 by adding separate ramps to westbound and eastbound CR 537 from I-195 and by making the westbound ramp two lanes for Six Flags traffic.

I-195, like many other highways in New Jersey, once had solar powered emergency call boxes every 1.0-mile (1.6 km). With the advent of cell phones, the call boxes saw limited use. To save on maintenance costs, the NJDOT removed the call boxes in 2005.

On April 30, 2010, NJDOT started a project to repave the expressway both eastbound and westbound from just east of the Turnpike overpasses near Exit 7 in Robbinsville Township to Exit 11 in Upper Freehold Township. This was completed in late autumn of 2010.